ClaireAndMike

5 hours ago, david_sobe said:

Really enjoying your review. Just WOW, what a grandma!!!!!!  For her to spring for the cruise for everyone during new years is really something. New Years cruises are usually much higher priced due to the demand so this was an incredible gift for all of you.  Your grandma looks amazing at age 90.

Cant wait for more

 

P.S.  I already miss the horse head 🙂

Yes, I am very lucky.  She footed the bill for the Bermuda cruise as well.  I will never in my life be in a position to be able to do that for people, as much as I'd love to.  

I'm so mad that I didn't even pack the stupid thing.  Such a missed opportunity for fun.

On 1/5/2019 at 6:23 PM, Sand and Seas said:

We will be on the Bliss next month.   Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

I really hope that you love it as much as I did!

Also, I apologize for the picture of my brother giving "the finger" at Spice H20.  I uploaded it from my phone and thought he was pointing.  By the time I saw it on my Chromebook, it was too late for me to delete it.  *Facepalm*  

Debarkation Day!  

I forgot to mention, there was a machine of a bartender putting up with everyone's nonsense at the Local on the last.  He had black-rimmed "nerd" glasses on and my brother referred to him as a "wizard."  This guy needed a comment card too.  He was unreal.  Drink after drink after drink...  nonstop.  That guy was awesome.  

So Saturday morning was a bit of an adventure.  The Captain came on in the morning to inform us that the passenger who had the medical emergency had lived and was going to be okay, so that was a relief.  Word had gotten around at that point that it was an 8 year old boy, so that was pretty sad.  I'm actually surprised that stuff like that doesn't happen more often.  When you get that many people together and there's endless alcohol... That obviously wasn't a factor in this instance.  I know people die on ships and they have a morgue and all that... 

So debarkation began at 11.  The breakfast places all closed at their usual times and everyone still had to be out of their rooms, so EVERYONE was crammed into just a few spaces.  Really all we could was sit and wait.  I had a later flight, so they asked that we leave last to allow people with earlier flights to be able to disembark and make it to the airport. 

I found a nice, quiet, somewhat uninhabited spot on the Waterfront so I had some peaceful final moments to enjoy the ship and my vacation, which was nice.

This is the first cruise I've been on that I haven't carried my own luggage off.  I don't think I'll do that again.  I brought two purses with me, and of course left my wallet in the one that I put in my suitcase ALL THE WAY AT THE BOTTOM.  And I was frantically searching for it Friday night (AFTER my suitcase had been taken) I had to hope and cross my fingers that that's where my wallet was.  So I felt pretty uneasy all night and wasn't able to actually dig it out until I got to the airport.  

For ease, I arranged the $16 bus transfer from the port to the airport.  By the way, I really do not like that Miami airport.  That thing needs to be redone.  I know an insane amount of traffic passes through there, but perhaps that's all the more reason to revamp it.         

CONCLUSION:

I had an absolutely wonderful time.  We had two minor hiccups, both resolved with profuse apologies from NCL.  I loved the Bliss and loved the crew.  I don't disbelieve the negative experiences that people have had, but it would have to be something really out of the ordinary for the average person to have a truly awful time on this ship.  I know things happen, but it's got to be a freak incident because I don't think that's the norm for this ship at all. 

I don't know when my next cruise will be, but I think I'm going to do a smaller ship.  A lot of it had to do with being part of such a large group, but having to make reservations for things in advance would have been tough.  I really liked the Jewel so I'll probably try a ship in that class.  I'd like to do something non-Caribbean too.  Maybe a Canada or New England or another Pacific Coastal...or Alaska?  

If I remember anything else over the next few days, which I probably will, I'll add it.  I wanted to get this done while I had the freshest memory of it!

Day Seven (Nassau or, for me, NOTHING!)

Ahhhh the final day.  I wasn't too thrilled the last time I visited Nassau so I decided to stay on the ship.  I've always wanted to do that on a port day, and today was my chance.  

Since we didn't arrive there until noon, and were there until 7pm, I had breakfast again at Savor.  Today, I ordered the huevos rancheros without the chili con carne sauce and an English muffin.  It was much better than the omelette I had the morning before.  

From there, I went to my Grandma's room and hung out for a little while.  Everyone else got off the ship and I wandered around for a little bit.  I got a glass of wine from the observation lounge, sat there for a few minutes, walked around a bit, went back to my room to change into my ill-fitting swimsuit and headed to the thermal suite.  This is the day when there was barely a soul there.  I swam in the thermal pool for maybe 15 minutes and then checked out the various rooms.  Snow room, salt room, tropical rain shower, sanarium, steam room, sauna...  And ahhhhhh, it was nice and quiet!  

I misjudged my time, and again missed lunch.  I went back to my room and finished the bag of goldfish crackers that I'd brought on board with me.  

Dinner that night was a Cagney's (group dinner) and again, wasn't until 8:30 or 9.  We met at 7:30 at the Waterfront Sugar Cane area for a cheap gift exchange the family had organized.  I declined to participate since I knew I wouldn't remember to buy a gift, and I have a general dislike for shopping.  I also had no room to bring anything else home with me.  

I forgot to mention that two weeks before the cruise, I'd ordered three maxi dresses online since I needed something to wear to dinners.  Two of them of course needed to be altered since they were way too long on me.  I picked them up from the seamstress on Christmas Eve and had them hanging up in my living room by my suitcase all week.  I realized at the airport 15 minutes before my flight boarded that I'd forgotten to pack them.  Long story short, my husband was able to drive them over to one of my aunts who was flying out Saturday morning who had room to bring them to me.  So I had to make sure I had room to fit those in my suitcase on the way back, and I was already stuffed to the gills.  

SOOOOOOO...  while we were at dinner, probably at about 9:45pm, we got the announcement from the Captain about needing to turn around and go back to Nassau because of the medical emergency and that we'd be arriving back to Miami four hours late.  He described it as being "critical" and "life or death."  They offered use of their phones at no charge for people to be able to try to call to rearrange their flights home.  I wasn't flying out until 4:30 so it didn't matter to me.   My mom, brother and his family were on the same flight back leaving at 1:30.  They figured it'd be reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally close, but didn't bother calling to change the flight and took their chances.  

My brother and I decided to make a night of it (again).  This time, we wore our NYE hats that we didn't wear on the actual NYE.  

Ohhhh!!!  I forgot to mention... after our Teppenyaki dinner, I went to Q because I was so excited to try the Smoky Peach Margarita.  Yeah, I didn't like it at all.  I took one sip and just couldn't do it.  I need to remember that I don't like tequila - no even in a smoky peach margarita.  So that was a huge bummer.  I actually didn't drink any cocktails all week.  Just wine and a couple of beers.   

Day Six Pictures

The shopping extravaganza

Folding chairs in the Atrium!

Out by the kids pool

Pool deck

My brother and niece.  Two redheads.

The best chocolate cupcakes I've ever had

The crazy game

Grandma's 90th birthday celebration

I got like three of these right

Day Six (Sea Day)  

Lord, I am flying through this.  

Had breakfast again in Savor.  We had the most wonderful server in here two mornings, and also had them the night of our dinner in the Manhattan Room.  I wish I'd gotten their name.  Does NCL still do "comment cards"?  There were definitely a few people that I should've given recognition to.  

I remember reading about service issues in the few weeks leading up to my sailing.  Long wait times for things, seemingly clueless crew members...  I did not experience ANY of that.  In fact, so many people went out of their way for us.  When my mom, Grandma and I were getting back onto the ship after our tour in Tortola, a woman half the size of my mom and I, and probably a quarter of my moms age wheeled my Grandma up the gangway.  Whenever we were in a restaurant, they would help her get from her wheelchair into a chair at the table.  Etc, etc, etc.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  TIME.  

In fact, it felt like the entire ship (the crew, that is) knew who the O'Shea group was.  My sister in law said they were eating somewhere with the kids, maybe the Garden Cafe, and she was wearing her group shirt, the one with my Grandma's picture on it, and a crew member just started going "I know her!  I know her!"  They were absolutely wonderful.  Every time we passed someone walking down a hallway or in a public space, they smiled and said hello.  

My brother and I always have kind of a guilt complex about cruises.  These people from so many countries work their butts off for such long hours and low pay and have to bend over backwards catering to our every want and need...  Yes, perhaps it's a better life for them than what they'd have at home, but there is no way that job is easy.  I wish they were paid better.  I wonder what benefits (if any) they get.  And yeah, it's the job they applied for, but still...  That's my little rant.

So anyway, breakfast at Savor.  I ordered a cheese omelette with wheat toast.  It was okay, the cheese wasn't very melted, but I liked the portion size.  It was on the smaller end, and perfect.  After that, the shops were having one of those ridiculous "blowout" sales with loads of cheap crap.  The ladies were going crazy over it, but again, not my thing.  My mom wanted to go check it out.  I was there for a few minutes and had to leave.  It was just wild.  I think you got a free tote bag if you spent $100.  Wow.  

After that, we met my brother up on the pool deck so my Grandma could "watch the kids swim."  I'm kind of with my Dad when it comes to the pool deck.  Too loud, too hot, too crowded.  Not my idea of a good time.  Plus I've gained like 20 lbs since my last crew and am pale as a ghost so it's not really the place to be for my kind anyway.  I didn't really fit into my swimsuits from cruises past so I wore leggings and a tshirt to the thermal suite 90% of the time I was there.  I shouldn't give a darn, obviously there are a ton of very body confident people who don't and are out there flaunting their stuff anyway.  But the fair skin thing...I can't help that.  And I absolutely hate sunscreen so the less surface area I have to cover with it, the better.  

Lunch was in the observation lounge again.  I had the most amazing mini chocolate cupcake EVER.  I usually don't like frosting.  Especially the thick, stiff, overly sugary kind, which is what those type of cupcakes usually have.  But these cupcakes... they had that super light, like whipped cream kind of frosting and they were the greatest.  I only had one, and I regret it.  Do NOT miss out on those, whatever you do.  

In the afternoon, my brother and I went up to Spice where some of the gang was playing a game called "Donner Dinner Party."  I'd never heard of it, but was told it was similar to "Secret Hitler" which I'd played once before at a party.  I really didn't get this game at all, so I just watched.  It got quite animated.  

We had a big night coming up.  One of my uncles had arranged for us to celebrate my Grandma's birthday in one of the conference rooms.  They decorated it and planned to have games and a big photo slideshow set to music.  

We were supposed to meet at 6:30 for a family portrait in the portrait studio.  Here is the other snafu of the week:  they studio was apparently double booked.

Ohh - I remember reading something about folding chairs in the Atrium.  Yes, I did see those set up for the more well-attended events happening there.

The birthday celebration was scheduled to begin at 7 in the Atlantic conference room, so we headed there first.  The oldest of the cousins (I'm the second oldest, phew) gave a tearful toast, which had everyone else in the room crying (except for me of course, I generally don't get too emotional over happy occasions).  The slideshow was incredibly well done.  My uncle really has a way of doing things.  He's the one who did 99% of the legwork for the cruise.  When we were done, the photographer was ready for us, but of course now everyone had puffy, red eyes and faces from crying and makeup had been smeared.  Perfect time to take a family picture! 

After the pictures were done, we had a big dinner at the Teppanyaki place.  That meal was REALLY good but my god I got so much food.  I ate maybe 25% of it and felt so bad about wasting the rest of it.  I feel like there is SO MUCH WASTED FOOD in general on a cruise.  I wonder if they could order just 75% of what they do and have enough?  They must dispose of soooooooooooo much of it.  

I have no idea what I did that night.  I think I went to bed early.  Well, "early."  I don't think we were done with dinner until 10:00.  My mom was babysitting for my niece and nephew in their room while my brother and sister in law went to Jersey Boys at 10:30.  

Day Five Pictures!  (Tortola)

View from our open air vehicle

Place we stopped at for a drink opportunity

On to the "sea" portion

Grandma got up to take a look

I was at the thermal suite for sailaway 

Looking straight out from the observation lounge

The burrata caprese (caprese burrata) that I was so excited to try!  Yummmmm.

Tortellini

Day Five (Tortola, a new place for me)

Me being the idiot that I am, forgot to hang the room service thing on our door handle the night before.  I had looked at it to double check because the morning before, we were given whole milk because my mom didn't check off the fat free.  When I was inspecting her work, I set it down on the counter by the fridge and left it there.  Oops.  

Luckily, I woke up early so I grabbed the reusable shopping bad I'd brought along, and the room service card, and snuck up to the Garden Cafe to snatch up whatever I could.  Our meeting time for the excursion was 7:45.  We got my Grandma (and her wheelchair) down to get off the ship and were there by 7:20.  One of my aunts and a cousin was coincidentally in front of us, on their way out for their trip.  Right after they walked off, an employee asked us if we were with them.  We said no since we were on a different tour.  We should've said yes, but at that point, they quit letting people off because the Celebrity Edge was pulling in.  So we had to wait for about 45 minutes before we could leave.  Luckily, all the tour operators knew so they waited for us.  

This tour was prebooked and paid for by another member of my group and it was NOT handicapped friendly.  I should've checked, because I know I'd seen other "accessible" tours listed.  You should've seen my poor 90 year old Grandmother who could barely walk try to get herself up into this open air bus.  Like three people had to help us, and I know she was incredibly uncomfortable on the ride.  I really could have done without the "land" part of the tour.  We drove all over that island, and didn't really stop anywhere except for this tiny bar/shack with a view.  The ride was bumpy and we couldn't hear a word our driver was saying over the noise of the truck engine.  It went on FOREVERRRRRRRRRRRR.  

FINALLY we were able to get off of that thing and walked over to the "sea" part.  We got on a boat (it was also quite a challenge getting Grandma on and off of that thing) and went out seeing some of the other islands.  I enjoyed that much better.  My mother made it her mission to spot the other members of our group on their chartered boats.  I tried explaining to her how low those odds were, but she was having none of it.  The tour was over at a little after noon.  I was so hungry by this time, so it was time for lunch.  I haven't the faintest idea what I had.  No pictures, but I'm guessing it was in the Observation Lounge.  Then I went to the spa.  That night, we had a group dinner in La Cucina.  Some people were seeing Jersey Boys, so they didn't make it.  I think my brother and his branch of the family tree went elsewhere too.  It was another late reservation and the kids needed to eat earlier.  

Day Five pictures coming next. 

On the ride up to Paradise Point

Lunch at Fresh Bistro.  Blackened mahi mahi sandwich.  

St. Thomas from the balcony

Our first of two gifts from the Manhattan Room

Again, not sure why these are uploading out of order.  A Carnival ship coming in between us.

I brought three books to read and only got halfway through one of them

Jalapeno cornbread at Savor

Eggplant parmesan

People are gross and leave stuff everywhere

Picture of my brother and I cracking ourselves up in the Haven Lounge the other night

Made another appearance at Spice.  It was dead this night and actually quite nice.

Abandoned pool deck

And we stumbled upon the go karts!!!

And I found a sunburn

Fourthmeal

I'd be more inclined to ride the go karts if it wasn't a "race" and more of a leisurely ride

Day Four (LAND HO!)  St. Thomas

I had been to St. Thomas once before on a cruise with my sister.  The Epic Eastern Caribbean cruise in 2013.  We did an island tour and saw a bunch of stuff then and while I really liked it there, I didn't feel the need to really do much this time.  Or at any one of our ports, really.  I've had a super stressful last six, going on seven months at work (in fact, I'm dreading what I will be returning to tomorrow after being gone for a week) and I really needed time to just relax and do very little.  

I ordered room service for breakfast on this day.  I eat pretty light in the morning so a little box or corn flakes was all I needed.  The group scattered and did their own thing this day.  My brother's family went to Magen's Bay (at my suggestion), my Uncle arranged a helicopter tour for my Grandma and two others (NOT ME, HELL NO), I have no idea what everyone else did.  My mom and I didn't do anything really exciting.  We walked across the street to "Paradise Point" and took the cable car thing up to take some pictures.  We then walked around a bit and shopped/browsed.  I'm not a big shopping person - I don't buy souvenirs.  Some goof in a weird "high end" store sweet talked my mom into sitting for some sort of eye wrinkle serum demonstration.  Those people really irritate me.  I try to say no thank you as politely as possible, but they're so persistent.  The guy didn't like me at all because I'm super skeptical of ANY of those so-called beauty products.  I wish I could remember what brand he was hawking.  We were on our way to lunch (I was quite hungry at this point, the Corn Flakes don't keep you full for long) and I didn't want to be held up.  So I was standing there with my arms crossed, probably looking very impatient.  He puts this crap on the corners of my mom's eyes, holds a small fan up to them to speed up the absorption process and then asks me excitedly if I can see the difference.  Spoiler alert:  no.  I told him I didn't look at them before so I certainly couldn't tell the after.  Then he gives his speech about he's going to give her a free gift.  If she bought the eye crap for $250, he'd give her some other product for free.  He claimed that the eye crap retailed for $995 online, and even pulled up some probably fake website to "prove" it.  Anyway, I'd finally had enough and dragged mother out of there.  

There were very few food options that I saw in the immediate area.  I guess a lot of it was closed for New Year's Day or hadn't reopened after getting some hurricane damage?  

We ended up at the "Fresh Bistro" which was quite an improvement over our lunch at the Delly Deck last time we were there.  I had a blackened mahi mahi sandwich and my mother had chicken wings.  Oh, wouldn't you know it, the dude from the cosmetic store came in to order lunch a few minutes after we got there.  

After that, we walked around Havensight Mall for about 20 minutes.  I went back to the ship and my mom went back to buy kettle corn.  

When I got back to the room, our first of the two gifts from the Manhattan Room were waiting for me.  I don't drink Merlot so I gave it to my brother later that evening.  

I had dinner at Savor with my mom, Grandma and one of my aunts.  Jalapeno skillet cornbread and eggplant parmesan is what I had.  My brother and I had another one of our infamous "nights out."  Tonight, we discovered the go kart track and had fun observing the last "heat."  I also discovered I'd gotten a sunburn.  AND we ended up at the Garden Cafe way late and ate buffet pizza.  My brother found the soft serve ice cream machine.  

We had a very early morning the next day.  A bunch of us (not me) were going on some boat ride the Baths on Virgin Gorda, followed by lunch at Cooper Island Yacht Club, and then a drink at Willy T's.  I agreed to a shore excursion "Tortola by Land and Sea" with my mom and Grandma.  

So for some reason, these pictures are in reverse chronological order.  Wth?  

NYE countdown on the pool deck

Dinner dessert

One of the three comped Veuve Clicquot bottles

Afternoon thermal suite time, reading my wonderfully entertaining Parker Posey memoir

NYE hats left in every stateroom on the ship

My buffet gloves

My nephew "Coco" (that's what I call him).  I was super entertained by the fact that there was a Coco's onboard, but no one else seemed to care.  Oh well.  I thought it was funny.  Never went there though.

Sparkling wine aplenty!

Day Three (another day at sea!)  Also, New Years Eve!

Another day that I have to consult my timestamped pictures...

I really regret not taking more advantage of all that is on this ship.  I did very little in the way of activities and shows.  In fact, I didn't see ANY shows.  No Havana!, no Jersey Boys (just not interested in either of them), no comedy shows, no live music, no go karts, no mini golf, no laser tag, ONE karaoke song, NO CREW TALENT SHOW (!!!) the entire week...  Seriously, what the hell did I do for an entire week?  

I checked my stupid Facebook more times than I should have.  Not that I was on it a lot, but I shouldn't have checked it AT ALL.  Having access to it was just too tempting though.  I'm not going to do ANY internet package on the next one because, as incredibly depressing as this is, I doubt I'll still have a dog at home to worry about.  In fact, when she was diagnosed with her heart condition, I said I wouldn't travel AT ALL anymore.  (I made a few exceptions to that rule, but as she gets older, I'm really doubling down).  And at that time, the "Mike" in "ClaireAndMike" will finally be able to go on his first cruise.    

Anyway.

I'm something of a germaphobe so those actual sinks with soap and paper towels as you walk into the Garden Cafe and Observation Lounge are about the most brilliant invention as ever I've seen.  I strongly dislike the idea of buffets in general.  I remember seeing a couple at a buffet once (might have been on a cruise ship) and they were wearing plastic gloves as they went around selecting their food.  What a great idea, I thought.  So now I travel with gloves and do the exact same thing.  I remove them before I eat, of course. 

Breakfast today was at the Garden Cafe.  Still a zoo.  On the Bliss, people take food down to the Observation Lounge just below (and the obs lounge also puts out buffet style food).  All I could think of was people spilling and getting food stains all over that beautiful, new furniture.  Eww. 

We were all given New Year hats in our rooms, which I thought was a nice touch, even though I forgot to wear mine.  But stay tuned, it did not go to waste.    

I spent the afternoon in the thermal suite and our group met in the observation lounge for our big family NYE dinner together in the Manhattan Room at 9pm.  The nights that we had dinner reservations as a group were always very late dinners - like 9pm.  In real life, I usually eat dinner at 6:30 and am in bed by 9:30.  I'm sure those were the only times they could seat a group of our size.  I shudder to think what we'd have been like had all 35 of us been able to go on the cruise.  Yikes.

Anyway, we got to the Manhattan Room for our reservation and were told the wait was 45 minutes.  Apparently they were taking walk-ins?  I guess this was the first minor snafu.  I truly wouldn't have cared, and was pretty blase about the whole thing but, my Grandma is 90, we had young kids with us, and it was late and we were all hungry.  My uncle did some talking with the manager and they were able to seat us quicker, but at three different tables at three slightly staggered times.  This was supposed to be our nice, official family holiday dinner I suppose.  Oh well, it worked out okay.  My niece and nephew had to be put to bed so my mom stayed down in the room with them while my brother ate.  When he finished, he went down to the room and my mom came up and ate.  So it was a bit disjointed, but it worked out.  

As an "I'm sorry," NCL comped us three bottles of Veuve Cliquot, one for each table.  That is my champagne of choice (on special occasions) so I was quite thrilled.  They also took down every single one of our stateroom numbers and delivered desserts and a bottle of wine to each room the following day, and then chocolate covered strawberries the day after that.  Totally unnecessary, but so nice.      

By the time we were done eating, it was almost midnight.  We headed up to the pool deck where they were carrying around more trays loaded with sparking wine than one could imagine handing them out to people.  It was really fun.  Siglo was up there playing and Silas led a countdown.  But about five minutes after midnight, it was bedtime for me.  

HAHA oh and I just realized...my husband is looking at the dailies and asked me what the 18-25 gathering was.  I said I had no idea.  Upon further inspection, apparently the 18 to 25 year olds had a gathering at Spice H20.  That explains why we felt so old.  We were literally the oldest people there.  Guess we can close the file on that one.

55 minutes ago, InMyFreeTime said:

4000 passengers arrived hours later than scheduled.  My flight was scheduled for 12:30pm but I got to the airport too late to have luggage loaded so I was forced to book a last minute $1500 replacement flight out at 4:30pm which I was lucky to get since many of the aforementioned 4000 passengers were at the same time looking for flights home.  Many of these I can tell you have not yet made it home as many were re-booking on flights with plus one and plus two day arrival times.  4000 passengers were jammed up at the port trying to get themselves and their luggage onto the ship while the previous weeks 4000 passengers with luggage were trying to get off the ship most of whom were trying to be the first off to potentially salvage their plans.  While NCL staff were trying to deal with all of these 8000 stressed passengers ground crews were forced to manage the massive turnaround logistics disruption(fuelling and a weeks supplies on and off for a floating city) which is challenging on a good day. 

 

"The only chaos will be in the minds" ?

 

Looking at all this in perspective I really think we need to recognize how NCL responded.  They could have air evacuated the child from the ship and met the planned cruise timeline but that was not in the childs best interest and would have placed his life at greater risk.  So with full knowledge of the great cost and pain to the company and its staff that this would entail the captain, with NCL management approval and without hesitation, reversed the ship and proceeded back to port at best speed.  I was only one of the thousands and thousands that made small sacrafices in perspective yesterday following their lead and choose to focus on what ultimately is really important.

Yes, it was absolutely very real chaos!  With very good reason, of course, and I'm sure the vast majority of people (myself included) absolutely understood that it was necessary.  Kudos to NCL for handling it as best they could given the circumstance.  I know it's easy for me to say because I made my flight.  

Also, I went to the site for the family, and I saw them on board!!!  I remember thinking to myself how much I loved their red hair (my family has a lot of redheads, myself included).  I almost said something.  I wish I had.  So sad to know it was them.  =(  

I'm having an issue uploading these pictures!  They're getting out of order, some are duplicates, some aren't showing up at all...  Oh well.

The District!  Their paper menu was not accurate, we were told.  You had to order from the screens.

Thermal suite

My niece and I at the Local during our embarkation day lunch

Our invite to the cocktail party

Omg the egg!  *shudder*

Yummy grilled sea bass and fennel citrus salad

Day Two (a sea day)

What did I do today?  Beats me.  Using the timestamps on my phone's pictures, I guess I was up in the thermal suite for awhile in the morning.  As far as that goes, it was nice, but I think I liked the one on the Epic better.  I remember that one being a lot quieter as well.  There always seemed to be a loud group in the thermal pool while I was up there and not even my headphones could drown them out.  I walked in to all of the rooms briefly (except for the snow room - I just opened the door long enough to take a picture) but didn't spent any time in any of them.  I mostly laid on the heated tile loungers and padded chairs and read or listened to music.  The best day was when we were in Nassau and I stayed on the ship all day.  There were like two people besides me in the thermal suite.  It was niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.  

My mom and one of my aunts attended the port shopping talk in the theater.  I'm not a shopper so... 

I have no idea what I ate for breakfast or lunch.  I kept missing the hours for stuff so my guess is either the Garden Cafe or the spread at the Observation Lounge.  Omg.  They had this spinach, onion, artichoke (or something) mini tart up there that was SOOOOOO GOOD.  I grabbed one in passing not having any clue how much I'd love it.  And wouldn't you know, I never saw them there again.  I was a bit heartbroken.  Had I known, I would've snatched up a bunch and squirreled them away in my fridge to enjoy all week.  

My brother and I spent some time in "the District" having a few beers during the afternoon.  

Late afternoon, I ventured back to my Grandma's room and learned that the entire family (ALL of us) had been invited to the "Captain's VIP Cocktail Party" that evening in the Haven.  Sweet!  I had completely missed the Latitudes cocktail reception earlier in the afternoon, so I was definitely going to check this one out.  

It was verrrrrrrrrrrrry nice.  Silas was the cruise director on this cruise - and he had also been the cruise director on my very first cruise on the Pride of America in 2011 so that was kind of cool.  As I walked by the officers and shook their hands on the way in, I wish I paid more attention because the captain was one of them, and I have no idea which one he was.  I thought maybe they'd say something or someone would do a little address of the crowd, but they didn't.  They had some quite tasty passed apps going around.  

After that, everyone scattered for dinner.  I chose to eat in the Haven restaurant with my Mom, aunt and Grandma.  I am NOT a foodie.  I also have an incredibly discerning palate.  Very odd food preferences.  I was a longtime vegetarian, and now recently turned pescetarian (with a shellfish allergy) so I am somewhat limited in what I can/will eat.  I don't like all that weird stuff that I can't pronounce.  If I don't know what it is, I Google it to see if I can eat it, but I couldn't do that on the ship.  

For my appetizer, I got the ahi tuna poke.  Imagine my intrigue when it was served with a quail egg on top.  Omg.  It was raw and a little of the contents dripped onto my tuna.  BUT I ATE IT!  Oh and there were bits of caviar!  Sooooo not my thing.  I moved the quail egg to the side and ignored the caviar.     

I then had a caesar salad and for my entree, grilled sea bass (which I'd never had before) served over citrus fennel salad.  We each ordered a separate dessert and shared them all, so I got a small taste of everything.  

My brother and his family had to miss the cocktail reception, but he came up and joined us after dinner.  We sat in the Haven Lounge for awhile.  After a five minute stop in the Cavern Club (long enough to witness one karaoke song), and a stop in the Local, I went to bed.

First glass of wine of the week!  At the Observation Lounge bar.

Their balcony on the Bliss was much smaller than the one on the Breakaway, but still quite nice.

Acting like fools

We found a stash of cereal

Too old

Hanging out with the teenagers, not knowing any of the music.  Back in MY day... 

Day One!  

Since kids apparently wake up early (I usually do too, but not always while on vacation), and were ready to eat breakfast before I had taken a shower so they all walked over to a nearby bakery while I got ready.  I didn't sleep well at all the night before (someone causing a ruckus in the hall outside my Mom and my room around 2:30am kept me awake) so I was exhausted.  Mother Dearest brought me back an egg and cheese croissant and a latte, which I consumed on my balcony along with my final bottle from my Aldi wine advent calendar (prosecco) as pictured above.  My mom and I were on the 19th floor, my brother and his family on the 4th.  

Got all packed up and ready to check out by 11am I believe and took two Ubers over to the Port of Miami, a quick ride away.  Oh, as we drove past the InterContinental, we saw the Alabama football team walking out.  I'm not a sports fan at all, but my mom and brother are, so they thought that was pretty cool.  I guess they were playing a game in Miami over the weekend?  

My phone was in my backpack the whole time so I didn't check the time, but we were on board in no time.  We barely had to wait at all.  By 11:45, we were on the ship eating lunch at the Local.  I wasn't hungry since I'd just eaten that huge croissant (and I could only eat half of that) so I just got a caesar salad.  My mom got the Rachel, my niece had a hot dog, my brother and nephew shared a burger, and my sister in law got a salad.  

The ship was gorgeous (lovely color schemes, design and artwork) and all decorated for New Years (and some Christmas stuff still) which was fun.  I've cruised the week AFTER before, but never actually over the New Year.  My downfall in preparing for vacations is that I look at SO MANY PICTURES that when I'm finally there in person, I'm never surprised because I already know exactly what I'm going to see.  I'm going to work on that for future trips.  Some planning is obviously necesssary, but I didn't need to look at thousands of pictures of the interior of the ship.  

Our entire family had rooms on deck 13, with my Grandma and two aunts in a Haven aft penthouse suite.  My cabin was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay forward on the starboard side.  I liked it, but it was a long walk to the thermal suite!  Or to visit Grandma's room.  Oh well, I needed the exercise.  

We all downloaded the NCL phone app and used the messaging function to communicate the entire week.  Some very funny exchanges were sent.  

One of my cousins and her husband had shirts made for the group, which we were to wear when we all met up for sail away at "Spice H20" (ha) where many in our group would spend significant time throughout the week.  It became something of a joke to my brother and I because we were up there "after hours" one night and to our horror, were the oldest people there by a good 10-15 years, by our estimation.  It's funny to be at the age where you feel like "the old people" as early/mid 30 somethings. 

As far as our cabin goes, I was in 13718.  As I mentioned, it'd been a few years since I've taken a cruise so I guess they're not doing chocolates on pillows or ship pins for Latitudes members anymore?  I'm Gold now.  I got a bottle of sparkling wine, but not a bottle of water.  I also noticed there was very little storage (like for clothing) compared to other ships I've been on.  I always unpack and store my suitcase under the bed when on a cruise, but there wasn't room enough for both of us to unpack them.       

We also had a group dinner for all of us that night in either Taste or Savor.  I can't remember which, not that it matters.  Whichever one was on the starboard side.  God I can't even remember what I ordered.  I can say though that I never had one bad meal the entire week.  Oh!  I actually took a picture of it.  Salmon with quinoa. 

My brother and I hung out for a few hours after dinner, which was nice.  We're very close (relationship-wise) but we live in different states and don't get to see each other often.  We're also very goofy and have a very interesting sense of humor which we're told we get from our Dad (who was not on the cruise with us).  Cruising in general, and especially on a huge ship to the Caribbean with 4,000 people is what my Dad would consider to be the most heinous of the circles of hell.  As quick aside - I did convince him to do a six day Pacific Coastal cruise on the Jewel with the inimitable Captain Lars in 2013, which I think he enjoyed.  I hope to maybe get him on an Alaskan cruise.  I know he'd be there in a second if we knew we'd have Captain Lars.  I wonder if he's still at the helm anywhere?  We STILL talk about Captain Lars.         

Anyway, enjoy some photos of Day One.

Nasty couch at baggage claim in Miami!  

Lunch (and libations!) on the plane

My niece gifted me with some artwork.  Bless.

Dinner

Haha!  In the hotel room.  Could be mine for $20!

View of the port from the hotel room balcony

Back of the "romance kit"

Balcony breakfast.  I had one of those Aldi wine advent calendars and was supposed to consume the final bottle the night before, but forgot.  So I had sparkling wine for breakfast.

My niece watching all of the buses load up with [probably] cruise passengers (yes, they made her get down off of the chair almost as soon as she got up there)

This was a family cruise - 25 people (ranging in age from 18 months up to 90 years) and we were missing about 10 people that weren't able to join us - in celebration of my Grandmother's 90th birthday which was December 19th.  Oh, and she also paid for all of us.  We did the same thing on the Breakaway in Bermuda in August of 2014.  (I have a very nice Grandma.)  All I had to pay for was my airfare, hotel in Miami for one night and then incidentals throughout the week (mostly vanilla lattes at the on board Starbucks).  Oh, we had dinner in three specialty restaurants, so I paid for those.  But my on board account for the entire week was like $113 (I'm a big spender).  

I took astoundingly few photographs on this trip, and the week was over in the blink of an eye.  I have no clue how that happened.  There were so many things on the ship I never got to do or even see.  Weird.  All of the days kind of blurred together and I can't remember what I did from one day to the next.  Hopefully the few pictures I took will help me remember.

The fact was once again re-enforced that I am not the best large group traveler, especially when kids are involved (I'm selfish, I admit it).  I've been traveling over the past few years with smaller groups of friends around my age and with the same interests (I'm 35 and child free), which is logistically easier.  I also didn't have my husband (I wish I could change my username because I've actually never cruised with him, nor have I ever called him "Mike."  He's "Michael" to me) or my steadfast cruise companion, my sister.  I shared a cabin with my Mom, and went off on my own a bit, and tooled around with my brother when his parental obligations allowed.  BUT, this cruise was about Grandma, not me.    

One of my uncles made all of the reservations and handled just about everything, which was actually kind of nice since I'm usually the planner, and I tend to overplan.  With our group booking, we could choose two promotional offers.  I had prepaid service charges and the UBP (which I'd never had before on any other cruise).  My mom had the same, which is funny because she doesn't drink alcohol at all.  I did NOT have to pay the gratuity charge for the drink package.  I had almost considered choosing another promo because I didn't think I'd drink enough alcohol to make the plan worth it, but I'm glad I kept it since it cost me nothing.  Though I am curious to know how much I drank (in dollars).  When I was paying by the glass, I could track what I spent in my on board account.

I bought the thermal suite pass and "social media" internet package in advance.  I needed to be able to keep in touch with my husband since we have a 13 year old dog with congestive heart failure.  In fact, when this trip was first proposed, I wasn't going to go (because of the dog).  I didn't decide until pretty late in the game to go, but I'm glad I did.  And my dog was fine all week, phew.   

I flew down to MIA late morning on Friday the 28th and landed at like 4pm.  My mom's flight landed about 30 minutes after mine, so I waited for her and we took a cab to our hotel.  My brother and his family had gotten in earlier in the day and were enjoying the pool on the 19th floor (which I never even saw).  I wanted to take the light rail from the airport (I'm a huge fan of public transit and like trying it in every city I visit that offers it), but it was already like 5pm and we were tired and hungry and my mom wanted to have dinner with my brother et al so a cab it was.  

We got checked in, dumped our stuff off in our room and then walked a block or so away to some Italian place where my brother and his family were already having dinner (they have young kids who were hungry and couldn't wait for us).  The hotel (Hyatt Centric Brickell) was nice.  I've stayed at the InterContinental in the past, but they were booked.  Anyway, blah blah blah.  I guess that concludes Day One.  Or Day Zero, to be consistent with cruise days.    

19 hours ago, david_sobe said:

Welcome home.  Cant wait to read your full review and if you brought the horse head along again 🙂

Hahaha!  My sister wasn't with me!  =(  It was a much more subdued cruise this time, unfortunately.  I should have packed the darn thing because my brother and I would've had fun with it.

I missed Sis terribly...

I too was on this sailing.  I hope the kid will be okay!  

I didn't disembark until 12:15 yesterday afternoon and I wasn't the last one by far.  Kind of crazy to think that last Saturday, I had already eaten lunch on board by that time! 

My flight out wasn't until 4:20 so I still had plenty of time.  My Mom, brother, sis-in-law and their kids had a 1:30 flight which they were concerned about, but didn't call to make any changes.  They ended up barely making the flight so all was well from a "bystander" perspective!

I will share the ***** page with the other members of my group. 

Just arrived at my gate at MIA.  I’ll say more once I’m home and can kind of remember things, but I just spent an amazing week on the Bliss!  My 6th cruise (I think?), all on NCL, but my first cruise in almost four years.  

The ship is beautiful, the crew was incredible.  Was everything perfect?  No, but I leave with nothing but great memories!  

Do to the medical emergency, I didn’t disembark until after 12 noon, but my flight home isn’t until 4:20 thankfully!  

Looking forward to sharing more with any any interested parties!